You Can't Take It With You

A very wealthy man, old and desperately ill, summons to his bedside his
three closest advisors: his doctor, his priest, and his lawyer.

"I know," he says, "they say you can't take it with you. But who knows?
Suppose they're mistaken. I'd like to have something with me, just in case.
So I am giving each of you an envelope containing one hundred thousand
dollars and I would be grateful if at my funeral you would put the
envelopes in my coffin, so that if it turns out that it's useful, I'll have
something."

They each agree to carry out his wish.

Sure enough, after just a few weeks, the old man passes away. At his
funeral, each of the three advisors is seen slipping something into the coffin.

After the burial, as the three are walking away together, the doctor
turns to the other two and says, "Friends, I have a confession to make. As
you know, at the hospital we are desperate because of the cutbacks in
funding. Our CAT SCAN machine broke down and we haven't beable to get a new
one. So, I took $20,000 of our friend's money for a new CAT SCAN and put the
rest in the coffin as he asked."

At this the priest says, "I, too have a confession to make. As you
know, our church is simply overwhelmed by the problem of the homeless. The
needs keep increasing and we have nowhere to turn. So I took $50,000 from the
envelope for our homeless fund and put the rest in the coffin as out
friend requested."

Fixing the other two in his gaze, the lawyer says "I am astonished and
deeply disappointed that you would treat so casually our solemn undertaking
to our friend. I want you to know that I placed in his coffin my personal
check for the full one hundred thousand dollars."

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